The Bluefin-21 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle is craned over the side of the Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield in the southern Indian Ocean during the continuing search for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the Australian Defence Force April 17, 2014.

Missing Malaysia Airlines Jet: Were They Looking in Right Place?

By Henry Austin

Two months and thousands of man hours into the search, data compiled in the hunt for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet will be re-examined by experts to make sure the right area is being scoured, officials said Monday.

"It's very sensible to go back and have a look at all of the data that has been gathered, all of the analysis that has been done and make sure there are no flaws in it, the assumptions are right, the analysis is right and the deductions and conclusions are right," search chief Angus Houston told reporters in Canberra, Australia.

Starting Wednesday, all of the data will be re-examined by an international team. No debris from the missing Boeing 777 has been located despite crews searching more than 1.8 million square miles of the southern Indian Ocean.

The hunt has focused on the remote region after a team of analysts calculated MH370's likeliest flight path based on satellite and radar data.

Signals consistent with transmissions from aircraft black boxes were also heard in the area early last month by a U.S. Navy-owned pinger locator.

Houston's comments followed discussions with Malaysian Defense Minister Hishammuddin Hussein and Chinese Transport Minister Yang Chuantang to determine the next stage of the search.

Officials are contacting governments and private contractors to find out whether they have specialized equipment that can dive deeper than the unmanned Bluefin-21 submarine that has spent weeks scouring the seafloor.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

First published May 5 2014, 1:05 AM

Henry Austin

Henry Austin joined NBC News as a contributor in June 2013, and covers domestic and foreign breaking stories for NBCNews.com. Austin joined NBC News after more than 10 years as a reporter. After starting at British press agency South West News Service, he moved to British newspapers The Sun and The People, before relocating to Canada to help set up press agency Hot News. There, he covered U.S. news stories for a variety of newspapers and magazines around the world.